A Second Chance
by Dragon-Ninjagirl
Summary: Set after The Serpent's Tale. It's a request for MariSunny and also dedicated to her. The Alpha Teens and Dragon free Sebastian, they try everything to defeat Quang and to find a way to bring Janus Lee back to his normal, human self. Will they succeed?
1. A Second Chance

This is a story about Mr Lee, set some time after The Serpent's Tale. **MariSunny **asked me to write it as a request for her, so I wrote it :) This story is also dedicated to her and to Janus Lee. She already read it and really liked it, I hope you feel the same way!! Now, enjy ;)

**A Second Chance**

"Dragon! Where do we have to go?!" Axel hid behind a big rock and pressed his back against the cold and raspy stone. His breath was fast and his heart hammered against his chest, he felt like it would break out the next moment. Dragon, the white clothed ninja, hid behind another rock just a few metres far away from Axel not to be hit by the shots of members of The Serpent's Tale.

Axel hadn't expected to see these guys having guns. He had rather thought of ninja swords. The shots of the laser guns smashed into the rock Axel hid behind, the stone vibrated hardly each time a shot hit it. Axel couldn't hit there forever. He had to get away from there, as fast as possible. Sooner or later these guys would come closer to him and surround him and Dragon.

"Dragon!", he yelled again. His shout nearly got lost in the sound of the guns and the yells and orders of the ninjas. Sebastian Manning's clone nodded. Sweat stood on Axel's forehead, he lifted his Tagblaster a bit and laid a finger on the trigger to get ready for the fight. Dragon pulled his golden shimmering sword out of the scabbard on his back, slowly and with a scraping metallic sound.

Axel nodded back. At a slow pace he got up and got on his knees, lifting the Tagblaster a little more. When Dragon ran out of his hiding place Axel followed as fast as he could, ignored the ninjas who shot at him with their laser guns and aimed at Dragon as well; he shot a few times at the walls of the large cave they were in, big pieces of the red and brown colored stone broke apart and fell to the ground, hitting some ninjas.

Dragon headed for a tunnel whose way in was on the other side of the cave. Axel ran, his lungs burned, he breathed hardly but continued. Sweat, some blood and dust was on his suit, but he didn't mind. He simply wanted to reach that tunnel before he was hit by a laser.

The ninjas closest to the two Jo-Lan warriors put away their guns and pulled their swords out of the scabbards on the belts they wore. Very quickly they ran after Dragon and Axel, much faster closer than Axel had thought.

"This way!", panted Dragon and turned a sharp curve right. Axel followed him, he nearly slipped off the sandy ground. Only some torches lit their way and a few laser shots smashed into the walls right and left to the two. The ninjas still chased them.

"Where are the others?", asked Axel while running, trying not to fall because of his aching legs.

"They should be on a higher floor than we are, just like we discussed before", replied Dragon quickly. "We'll meet them in a few minutes when we reached the end of this tunnel. There will be the stairs!" He whirled around, rose his sword and parried a shot, the laser smashed into the ceiling so that a bit of the stone broke apart and landed hardly on the ground in a big cloud of red and brown dust.

"Nice defense", grinned Axel. Dragon put the sword back into his scabbard. Axel couldn't see whether the ninja smiled or stayed serious, he wore his mask as usual.

The ninjas behind them were distracted by the collapsing part of the ceiling and stopped the chase for some moments. Enough time for Axel and Dragon to get to the stairs. The tunnel with its raspy, rough red stone walls vanished. Instead of there was now a corridor, white tiles were on the floor, the walls had a depressing grey color. But there was a door with a sign on it: Stairs this way.

Axel and the ninja raced up the stairs until they reached the next floor. The two slowed down a bit when they arrived at the door to this floor, listening carefully to find out whether there were any guards or ninjas. When there was not any single noise Axel opened the door quietly and slipped through it, just like Dragon.

"Lioness?" Axel used his Alphacom to contact her.

"Axel! Where are you?", she asked panting. Her face appeared on his Alphacom, she looked tired, a bit frightened though, sweat stood on her forehead. Nervous she looked shortly over her shoulder.

"On the second floor. Close to the stairs. Dragon said that the prison is on this floor, but deeper in the complex of buildings. We have to get there before each and every ninja here knows about our arrival!"

"Understood, meet you there in a few minutes", replied Lioness and ended the call. Axel based on the wall shortly and tried to catch his breath. Carefully Dragon walked to the next corner. The corridor went into two different directions. Left and right. The ninja pressed his back against the wall and pushed his head around the corner, only a few inches far.

"No one's around. If we're lucky we can reach the prison without being seen."

"Then good luck! We got company!" Axel pointed at the door with widened eyes. The ninjas they had just hung out stood behind the door and discussed something. They didn't seem to notice Dragon and Axel.

"Move it!" The two Jo-Lan warriors made their way through the corridors. Dragon had never been in that part of the building before, so they had to improve with finding a way. Sometimes they took the wrong way, then they had to go back and take a new one.

About ten minutes later they finally reached a corridor which was different from the other ones. On the wall was a red arrow, _Prison _it said. Axel grinned at Dragon who just nodded relieved about that they found the correct way. They ran a bit faster.

Axel turned running around the next corner and crashed suddenly into someone. He fell backwards on the floor and rubbed his head as he looked up. "Lioness?" Lioness sat in front of him on the ground, rubbing her neck. She looked at him when he stood up and offered her his hand. Smiling she took his hand thankfully and was pulled up by him.

"Thanks." She breathed out slowly. The rest of the team appeared behind her. King, Shark and Hawk looked as tired as Lioness, but relieved to see Dragon and Axel again.

"We should hurry up now, or else we'll have lots of company around us", said Hawk worried.

"I hacked into the main computer's system. We should be able to get into the prison complex without triggering off the alarm. But we only got exactly 10 minutes to get Sebastian out of there", said King hastingly.

"What if we need more than 10 minutes?", asked Shark.

"Oh well...the alarm will be triggered off and within seconds some ninjas could surround us." King shrugged his shoulders with sarcasm.

"Let's go." Axel lowed his voice. "And be quiet. We need to stay undiscovered till we found and freed my dad."

The others nodded. Dragon led the group through the corridors, following the red arrows on the walls which showed them the way. It was strange to see no guards or ninjas around, not even one single person was there. Lioness looked nervous around.

"Are you sure this is the right way? I mean, a prison should be more guarded, shouldn't it?", she whispered.

"Calm down", whispered Axel back. "We'll make it." He smiled at her.

"We must go through this door to reach the corridor where Sebastian is", explained Dragon pointing at a door to their right and looked at Axel who tried to open the door quietly. It was locked.

"Wait a second dudes", grinned Shark and pulled a small needle out of his pocket. "The door will be open before you can say tuna sandwich." He pushed the needle into the lock and turned it around a few times. With a quiet _click_ the lock was opened. Sharks grin turned even brighter.

"Wow, where did you learn that?", asked Hawk impressed.

"Pipeline showed me. Just in case he'd lost his key to open the door of the shack we put our surfboards into. Just imagine what it would have been for a disaster if we hadn't been able to get to our boards!"

"Yeah, a real disaster", agreed Hawk with played enthusiasm. Axel laid his finger on his lips, signalizing his friends to be quiet. He pushed the door open. It didn't even make any sound. He nodded to Dragon who made his way first into the new corridor.

This corridor was completely different. The ceiling was even higher, perhaps about five metres, to the left and to the right of the path were cells. Cells of the prisoners of The Serpent's Tale. The doors were heavy and thick, made up of grey and stump metal. Only a small window in each of the doors allowed the team to get a look into the cells. Numbers were written onto the cell doors.

That corridor was quite long, the friends were not able to see its end. Now they were in the right part of the building and just had to find Sebastian's cell.

"Which number is it?", questioned Axel as he sneaked forwards. He couldn't help it, he felt watched by the ninjas and had the feeling they were still chasing him and his friends.

"531 it is", replied Lioness. "And this cell has got the number 498. Means we need to follow the path a bit."

"Great! How are we gonna pass nearly 40 doors within six minutes?" Hawk breathed out slowly to oppress the panic which came slowly up in him.

"Running?"

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"Faster! We nearly made it!"

"Yeah, and just got four minutes left!"

"Wait! There is it! I can see the cell!", panted King when they ran past another cell. At once everyone stopped. Axel did that hard that he nearly slipped off the floor, but he could manage to stand on his feet.

"Here it is." Lioness placed in front of the door. "Number 531." She looked over her shoulder at Axel standing behind her, closing his eyes. He prepared for a Jo-Lan attack to blast the door away. Lioness stepped out of the way, Dragon came to Axel and placed next to him. At the same time the two Jo-Lan warriors moved forwards, their hands nearly touched the metal of the door and a giantic Jo-Lan energy blast hit it.

The energy wave was strong enough to blast the door into the cell, it crashed into the opposite wall and fell to the ground with a loud metallic thud. Dust had risen into the air and made a clear view difficult, Axel and Dragon stayed in their positions until the dust laid down again.

There was no light in the cell. Only the light which came through the door helped the two Jo-Lan warriors to see something. Carefully and at a very slow pace Axel walked in. A few steps behind the entrance he stopped, looked around, waiting for his eyes to get used to the lack of light that was in the room. A shadow appeared in front of him, it looked straight into his eyes.

"Dad?", asked Axel quietly, his voice wasn't more than just a whisper in the silence which laid over this moment. Like a curtain. The shadow took a step towards Axel and stepped into the light so that he could recognize his face. A pair of light blue eyes looked straight at Axel, with an expression of confusion and distrust, but also sorrow.

Axel didn't even need a second to recognize his father's face. "Dad!", he cried, tears filling his eyes, and fell around Sebastian Manning's neck, hugging him tightly.Only now Sebastian got to know who that young man was, the distrust and confusion in his face made way for surprise and happyness.

"Axel! Is that really you?" He hugged his son back, like he'd never want to let him go. "I knew you'd come one day...I knew you'd find out the truth."

"I'm just so glad to see you're alright", Axel sobbed, closing his eyes and buried his face in his father's chest. Tears ran down his cheeks, dampened the old and haggled clothes of Sebastian who just embraced his son to comfort him.

"Guys, it's okay what you're doing, but can you do that later?!", interrupted Hawk. "In about two minutes we'll get much more company than you two can hug!"

Axel let his father go and wiped the tears out of his face. He nodded seriously. "Let's get out of here", Axel told with a shaking voice.

Seconds later the team, Dragon and Sebastian ran back to the door they had come through. "Do you have a plan to defeat The Serpent's Tale?", asked Sebastian while running as fast as he could.

"Actually we just planned to get you out of this place", replied Axel and smiled embarassed. "Beating that ninjas stood not in our plans."

"We just have to defeat Quang, when he's gone the ninjas won't chase us anymore", explained Sebastian. "It's like with a nest of bees, kill their queen and they will divide into smaller groups following their own aims."

"Alright guys", grinned King. "Shall we?"


	2. The Serpent's Fight

The Serpent's Fight

"Where can we find Quang?", asked Axel Dragon. "And we should hurry up a bit, just a minute left!"

"Don't worry, we're nearly outta here", replied King, looking at his Alphacom with a worried face. "I can't localise anoyone around us...it's like we're the only ones here."

"The better it is." Hawk smiled. "So we could get out of this place before anyone can stop us."

"No", said Axel seriously. "I want to find Quang. And I'll fight him."

They hurried through the door to the prison complex and made a short pause, panting they based on the walls and tried to catch their breaths. Then they went on. Some time later the team finally arrived the big cave Axel and Dragon had been in at the beginning. They paused again, thinking about what do do next.

Lioness came over to Axel and laid her hand on his shoulder, looking straight into his face.

"Don't you think we should leave first? Just remember what happened when you met Quang in the first place. He nearly killed you", she told him. Axel placed his hand gently on hers and stared serious into her eyes.

"This time I'm prepared. Trust me."

Lioness nodded, unsecure though, and took a step backwards. She bit her lower lip for a second, then she suddenly fell around Axel's neck and hugged him tightly. Confused but also feeling comfortable he hugged her as well. "But take care", she whispered and laid her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes.

"Sure", he grinned and let her go. "So, are you with me?"

"Of course we are!", stated Hawk. "But how are we gonna find Quang?"

"Oh, you don't need to take care about that", said a giggling voice behind the group. At the same time they all whirled alarmed around. Quang and a few ninjas stood in the corridor, blocking their way. The tall Chinese man grinned evilly but brightly and had his arms folded on his back. The only way to escape would have been the door to the prison complex, but the team would just find a dead-end.

So they were trapped.

"And I see you found your dear father, young Manning", continued Quang. "I'm rather impressed you could manage to get that far into my base."

Axel went furiously into fighting position. Only the sight of this man made him angry, let him nearly forget to control his anger. Axel knew it was his weakness to get that fast enraged when Quang was around. But he wanted revenge; revenge on what Quang had done to Sebastian Manning. The rest of the team followed Axel's example and prepared for the fight, as well as Sebastian and Dragon. Even though the ninja hesitated shortly.

"Aha, so you're now on their side, Dragon? Very, very disappointing."

"You betrayed me as well as you betrayed Axel and all the others" replied Dragon, his voice sounding slightly angry. It was strange to hear him being enraged. Usually he even kept calm in difficult situations. But now he seemed to forget this.

Quang nodded thoughtfully. "Then you chose the wrong side." A grin appeared on his lips.

Axel turned his hands into fists, that hard that his fingernails bored into his palms. It hurt him, but he ignored the stinging pain. He could hardly hold himself back from attacking Quang. He knew if he would do with too much anger he had no chance. The anger turned him blind.

"Anyway", began Quang and giggled quietly, "that was a nice try to get Mr Manning out of here. But you're going nowhere."

"Don't think so!" That was enough. Axel ran towards Quang, his eyes filled with hate and furiousity, rage took control over his body. Quickly Lioness grabbed his arm and held him back, using all of her energy. Axel was too enraged at the moment, his powers and most of all his behaviour too unreckonable. Axel pulled on his arm but stopped.

Quang just laughed derisive. "Your fighting like a child, your anger controls your mind", he chuckled evilly, obviously amused.

Axel growled deeply, though he didn't reply. Lioness still held his arm, afraid he might do something silly. Quang rose his hand and snapped his fingers. At once the ninjas behind him attacked the team, ran towards them and pulled their swords out of the scabbards on their backs.

The ninjas came closer, everybody prepared for fighting. Axel, of course, was faster than all the others. He pushed Lioness ungently away, clenched his fist and used his Jo-Lan to blast them away. Weakly the black men fell on the ground, no more moving. Quang smirked and clapped, as though something really spectacular had happened. Confused about this Axel stopped, standing ready in fighting position. He rose an eyebrow, trying hardly to calm down again. To ignore Quang's behaviour.

Quang giggled again, with his strange, provocative and evil giggle. "Very well done, young Manning", he said, "Very well done...I see your Jo-Lan power grew a bit since the last time we met."

Axel said nothing but attacked Quang directly now. Before the others could prevent him from attacking the Jo-Lan master Axel ran towards him, tried a kick, a punch and ducked quickly as Quang replied with a fast punch. Axel moved fast, flexible and didn't even make any pause between his attacks. Like he was guided by an invisible line he continued.

In contrast to Quang who just stood there, blocked the attacks easily and attacked Axel only with some not spectacular looking, but effective attacks. Now he grabbed Axel's arm and used only one hand to create a Jo-Lan energy wave which blasted Axel away.

Panting he hit the stony wall, his back ached terribly when he fell to his knees and looked up at Quang shaking slightly his head. "Like I said, you're fighting like a child."

"But I don't!" Lioness came from behind, trying to hit Quang with a kick. The Chinese man simply disappeared. Confused Lioness landed on the ground and looked around, nervously.

"Lioness!", yelled Axel warning. Just in time Lioness jumped away before Quang appeared behind her and punched. Now Quang addicted completely to Lioness who kept jumping out of the way. Quang vanished and appeared here and there, it was nearly impossible to find out where he was. Lioness got tired by the time. She already panted heavily and got even more nervous because she didn't know where her opponent was.

Suddenly Quang appeared in front of her and kicked her hardly into her stomach. With a cry of pain she fell to the ground, holding her stomach and moaned in pain. She couldn't move.

That enraged Axel even more. He jumped up immediately and attacked Quang. Before his enemy could appear Axel himself did. He just vanished as Quang turned around. Sebastian looked surprised.

"Didn't know he already reached a so high level of Jo-Lan", he mumbered. "I can hardly do what he does at the moment."

"You cannot hide forever, young Manning", grinned Quang and looked around. "This technique is like diving, there you need fresh air after some time. Here you need to appear from time to time to let your body regret. Otherwise you'll stay in form of a ghost. Your body will be gone, your mind is gonna stay here."

Axel's friends became nervous. He had never vanished that long before. Or at least he had never trained it.

A few moments later Axel appeared next to Lioness, trying to catch his breath. Quang noticed him directly and began to grin. "Like I said, it weakens you."

King, Shark and Hawk decided to fight Quang. They knew they had no chance against the Jo-Lan master, but they had to help Axel. Their help was not very useful. Within seconds Quang blocked or avoided their attacks, moved faster than a wild snake and used Jo-Lan blasts to throw the guys away. With shouts of surprise and pain the three of them landed on the ground, holding their bodies in pain.

Axel himself took one last breath in, then he attacked Quang again. Before he could reach his enemy someone jumped into his way, holding him back. It was his father. "My turn, Axel", he said. "Let's see if I still can fight."

"No! Wait!"

Too late. Sebastian attacked Quang right away, starting with a fast and powerful high kick, ducking quickly after it. He tried to kick the master's legs away, though Quang jumped at the same time into the air so Sebastian missed. Axel's father jumped on his feet again, whirled around and tried a few other kicks, very fast, one after one, spun around, used some punches but was blocked.

His agility after all these years of imprisonment was amazing. And his condition. He didn't seem to get tired, moved as fast as he could, but put his energy thoughtfully into different attacks. Moreover he dodged Quang's onslaughts quite well, the Jo-Lan master missed him most of the time.

"Look out!"

Quang just vanished, appeared a part of a second later behind Sebastian. Confused he spun around, stared surprised into the Chinese's face and was blasted away. With a quiet moan of pain Axel's father hit the wall with his back, fell to his knees and tried to stand up again. Even so he collapsed and stayed lying down, moveless.

The head of The Serpent's Tale walked slowly towards Sebastian, grinning evilly. "Well, it's a shame to waste so much power, but I can't run the risk to let you alive." He opened his eyes which glowed purple.

"Dragon!", cried Axel. "Do something!" Dragon was closer to Quang than Axel was, so he would be able to help Sebastian much earlier. "Dragon!" The ninja didn't move, he hesitated. Like he had taken root.

Axel ran, as fast as he was able to, and tried to reach Dragon. "Now do something!" , he yelled on his way. "Dragon!" The ninja still couldn't react. He had to choose. Between his master or Sebastian. He didn't know what to do.

Axel got at Dragon, stopped abruptly and grabbed the handle of the ninja's sword. Quickly he pulled it out of the scabbard, the familiar scratching sound of the golden but sharp metal seemed to wake Dragon finally. He turned to Axel grabbing Dragon's sword, running towards Quang with it. He jumped and landed right between his father and the Jo-Lan master.

The sword pointed at him.

Quang began to laugh. "You threaten me with a weapon?" He shook his head. "You have no idea. You don't know how to use this sword and you won't be able to kill me with it."

"We'll see about that!"

"Axel, no!" Now Dragon reacted.

With only one wave of his hand Quang managed to blow the sword out of Axel's hand. It flew high into the air, whirled and bored then into the stoney ground. A bit shocked and most of all surprised Axel stared at the sword. Then his eyes focused Quang.

"You shouldn't have interfered in my plans, young Manning", said Quang slowly. A grin appeared on his old face. "You made yourself my enemy. A big fault. And your last one."

"You shouldn't have captured my father", growled Axel and went into fighting position. "This way you became _my_ enemy."

"Axel!" Lioness attacked Quang from behind.

"No Lioness! Wait!"

Quang's attention was successfully caught by Lioness. Axel helped up his father, hoping Lioness could manage to fight Quang a bit longer. "We have to do something", he said desperated to Sebastian. His father nodded.

"You, Dragon and I need to attack him at the same time. Then he won't be able to block our combined Jo-Lan energy", replied Sebastian with lowed voice. Axel nodded in agreement. He gave Dragon, who had collected his wits in the meantime, a sign. The white ninja understood at once.

While Lioness ducked, punched and dodged Quang's attacks she saw in the corner of her eye the three Jo-Lan warriors coming closer. She panted heavily, sweated and felt as tired as never before. She just had to hold on for a few more moments...

"NOW!"

From behind, the three Jo-Lan warriors moved forwards, creating a giantic white ball of Jo-Lan energy. Quang just turned around and the blast of energy hit him right in the stomach. Surprised he flew backwards, crashed with his back into the stoney wall and fell to his knees. Axel pulled the golden ninja sword out of the ground, stopped in front of Quang and pointed with the sword at the master.

"I'm rather impressed, young Manning", he grinned. "Now finish it."

Axel's face turned even more serious. "No", he said. "No, I'm no murder like you. If I killed you, I wouldn't be better."

Quang, still on his knees, looked surprised up. Axel turned around and stung the sword into the ground, then walking away from the Jo-Lan master in a slow pace. But Quang didn't give up that fast. Perhaps Axel and the two other warriors had managed to get him on to his knees, but he wasn't beaten yet. Quang jumped to his feet again, grabbed the sword Axel just had bored into the ground and attacked Axel from behind.

"Axel!", screamed Lioness alarmed. Axel turned quickly around and noticed Quang's attack. Too late.

"Duck!", Dragon shouted, instinctiv Axel reacted and went to the ground. Dragon threw a small, but sharp ninja knife towards Quang. It hit his former master in the chest. At once Quang stopped and stared at the knife in his chest, grabbed it and pulled it out. Red blood stuck to the blade. He took another step towards Axel, rose the golden sword of Dragon and was about to sting it into Axel's heart.

Just then he suddenly collapsed and landed on the ground. He didn't move anymore.

Axel, still on the ground, stood slowly up and walked backwards.

"Is he...?" King came over to the others. Shark and Hawk followed, the two based on each other to manage walking.

"Yeah, I think so", replied Dragon emotionless and picked up his knife. "It's over now."

"Let's...get back home", suggested Hawk.

"Yeah dude, this day was weird enough."

They left Quang behind. And not even one ninja appeared on their way out of the base. It was like they had all vanished with Quang's death. Nonetheless the team couldn't really believe they just had beaten their archenemy. It seemed too good to be true. Anyway, they heard nothing of Quang for the rest of their lives. So Dragon was right. It was all over now.

* * *

** And please leave a review! ))) Thanks! Critism is always welcome! ;)**


	3. Later

Later

Axel and Lioness were walking through the park in a slow pace, holding each other's hand. The two were together for now about five years. Axel had admitted his feelings to her right after they had beaten Quang. To his very surprise Lioness loved him as well. And just a few days ago he had asked her to marry him. Lioness had replied with a 'yes'. And now it was just a normal day, like everyday else. Chilling, having fun, the usual. At least that's what they thought.

"Do ya know what I'm looking forward to?", asked Axel as they sat down on a bench close to the lake, under a large tree. He laid his arm around Lioness shoulder and pulled her closer to him.

"No, tell me", she smiled and looked into his face.

"Being together with your for the rest of my life." He moved his face closer to hers. Lioness already closed her eyes to kiss him, she wrapped her arms around his neck. Their faces nearly touched, both closing their eyes, when suddenly a noise let them spring away from each other.

Axel's cell phone rang. With an annoyed moan he took it out of his pocket and answered. "Hello?"

"Axel? Garrett here. Remember when I told you about that machine for absorbing hard-light out of organic materials?"

"Um...yeah, was a few days ago, I guess. What's with it?"

"It finally worked. I could manage to resorb the whole hard-light out of the test organism. It's completely normal again, not even one slight percent of hard-light is left in it. That means..."

"We could bring Lee back", finished Axel whispering.

"Positive. I want you guys to come here at once. We can bring Mr Lee back at once, if ya like to."

"Alright, we'll be there in ten minutes."

Axel ended the call and put his cell back into his pocket. Lioness looked asking at him. "What's up?"

"It was Garrett. The machine is finally finished. Now we can bring ML back", he said, not really believing it was true.

Lioness started smiling. "But that's great, isn't it? I mean, Mr Lee was on our side after all! And he's one of the good guys again! Bringing him back will be-"

"Wait Li", interrupted Axel. "I can understand you're happy. I'm too, but this could become a bit more difficult...what's he gonna do when he faces my dad? Or even us?" Axel shook his head slightly. "Or what if something goes wrong and he'll be the bad Lee again? The one who sent his Mu-Team to eliminate us?"

"C'mon", laughed Lioness. "There's nothing to worry about. He saved us when the Aquatic Center blew up! Means, he isn't a bad guy anymore. I bet he'll say sorry for everything, just like he did when he appeared in form of this hardlight ghost."

"Let's call the others and drive to Garrett, alright?"

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"So, this machine can bring back our ML?", asked Shark when he looked at the machine Garrett had worked on the last weeks. Garrett typed in some last information and nodded.

"Yeah. At least it worked with the test-organism, a with hardlight prepared mouse." He cleared his throat. "And don't worry King, nothing happened to it. It's acting like before. Meanwhile I sent it back to the zoo." Garrett smiled when he saw King's relieved face.

"Do you know where Lee is? He's light, means he could be anywhere", thought Hawk aloud.

Garrett nodded again. "At the moment Mr Lee is the strongest concentration of hardlight in whole Landmark City. I can easily locate him and bring him into this lab. Just need a few seconds...by the way, didn't your father want to come too?" Garrett's eyes focused Axel now, who stood next to Lioness, his arms folded, staring at the machine.

"Yeah, and Dragon as well. They should arrive in a few moments."

"Alright. If you want, we can already start with the location process."

As Axel nodded Garrett looked at the computer screens and typed quickly some orders into the computer. Maps of Landmark City appeared on the screens, the satellites were busy with finding Lee. And very soon they got him.

"Okay, starting the next phase." Garrett pressed a button, typed more and more orders into the computer and the machine. Some lights began to blink and the machine beeped quietly. The glass container being connected to the resorbing machine began to glow a bit. The glow became brighter and brighter, the Alpha Teens had to held their hands in front of their eyes because they were blinded.

Seconds later, the glow disappeared. Curiously they all looked at the glass container. In it floated a yellow glowing ball of hardlight, without any form.

"That's Mr Lee?", asked Hawk confused.

"Yeah", replied Garrett. "In his usual hardlight form. I guess by the time he didn't change his form much often, so he stayed in this one which is easy to create."

The door opened and two figures burst into the room. "Sorry for being late, we-" Sebastian stopped when he looked at the glass container. "Woah, what's that?"

"May I introduce you?", joked Shark. "Mr Janus Lee, this is Sebastian Manning. Mr Manning, Janus Lee." Shark pointed from the container to Sebastian and then the other way round.

"Very funny Shark", hissed King sarcastic.

"Okay guys, shall we start with the resorbing process?", asked Garrett before King and Shark could start a fight. Everybody nodded curiously. Garrett only pressed a button, the machine began to clatter quietly. On one of the computer screens appeared a percent notification which showed how much of the hardlight had been resorbed already. It stood on one percent.

"Um...how long will this take?", asked Lioness and looked at the slow notification. It crept forward to two percent.

"Not quite long. About half an hour", said Garrett. "Because he's human. The mouse was much smaller and it only took a few minutes. The bigger the organism is, the longer it'll take."

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The longer the process lasted the more they could recognize a human form in the hardlight ball. And finally the thirty minutes passed by, the process finished. The machine beeped shortly and the glass container opened. In it stood the Janus Lee everybody had known before he had fallen off the tower. He stood there in his black and white jumpsuit, still wore his purple glasses and looked quite confused at everybody.

Suddenly he collapsed. King and Dragon caught him just in time before he hit the ground. Garrett nodded slightly. "I expected that problem. That's why I prepared a daybed for him. He didn't walk for about five years, he had been light and didn't use his muscles. Now he's as weak as an astronaut coming back from a space station after a long time."

Garrett showed them the daybed in the room next to them. King and Dragon laid Mr Lee on it and took a step backwards. Mr Lee himself lost conscious after some seconds.

"We should let him rest first", suggested Axel. "I mean, we can talk to him when he wakes up."

xxxxxxxxxxx

One hour and at least fifteen cups of coffee later Garrett hurried into the cafeteria of the lab. The whole team, Dragon and Sebastian sat around a table and were talking to each other about what to do when Mr Lee wakes up.

"Guys! He's about to wake up again! His values are stabile again and his brain activities are-"

"Garrett, what do you want to tell us dude?", interrupted Shark as Garrett was about to talk about some scientific stuff.

"He's waking up!"

The effect of this sentence was amazing. Immediately every one jumped up and ran past Garrett to Mr Lee's room again. Carefully they entered it, Axel first, and saw the founder of Lee Industries sitting on his daybed, holding his head with one hand.

"Um...Mr Lee?", began Axel cautiously. Mr Lee looked up and his different coloured eyes looked straight into Axel's. Axel shuddered slightly. "How do you feel?"

"I...don't know...what happened?"

"You've been hardlight for five years", King helped Axel. "We finally found a way to turn you into your normal self again and resorbed the hardlight."

"You...wanted me back after all I did to you?" Mr Lee was obviously confused. His eyes focused each member of the Alpha Teens. Dragon and Sebastian hadn't entered the room yet. They thought it would be a kind of shock for him to see his best friend being alive.

"Yeah, after your fall you were kinda normal again. You even saved us, remember?"

"Yes, the happenings in the Aquatic Center..." Lee breathed out slowly and stared at the ground, thinking about something.

"Just a question, Sir", said Garrett, pulling his chef out of his thoughts. "Where have you been all these years? What did you do?"

"I really don't know, I can only remember there was nothing after the Aquatic Center was destroyed. I disappeared...into nowhere...it seemed to be a place without time or space, it was bright though, but there was nothing..."

"And what do you think was it?"

"I was light, and light can move faster than any human being ever did. So it could be possible that I've been here and there without even knowing it."

"ML", said Shark. "There are two dudes who wanna see you." He looked at the door and Mr Lee followed his sight. First Dragon, then Sebastian entered the room slowly, looking carefully at Mr Lee and stopped next to the others. Mr Lee's heart seemed to stop for a second, his eyes widened and looked at the clone, than at Sebastian again. Like he couldn't really believe what he saw.

"Janus", Sebastian smiled, "it's good to see you again after all these years."

"Sebastian? I thought you were dead! I-I'm so sorry for what happened..."

"Don't worry, it wasn't all your fault", said Sebastian, smiling like nothing had happened. He sensed how his friend felt, so he didn't want to make it worse. Moreover he knew his friend was sorry.

"It was." Mr Lee shook his head. "I just wanted to help the world by creating clones, higher beings which are able to do things normal human beings would never be able to. As you know, I started with Dragon."

"And I'm glad you did", said Dragon, bowing to Lee who rose an eyebrow. "I became a Jo-Lan warrior. And that is something very good because in the west Jo-Lan is very rare."

Lee understood and nodded slightly. "But it was my first fault to accept Quang's offer. To take his money to create more..."

"However, without his money you would have never been able to found Lee Industries, I guess." Garrett smiled.

"You're right. After founding this company I didn't think of creating clones...I thought of doing more researches for improving my techniques. But all this happened a long time after Quang sent his ninjas to kill Sebastian..." He paused and took a deep breath in, closing his eyes. "I felt so sorry, and I still feel sorry. I heard about Lily and little Axel feeling so desperated and sad...I didn't even dare to go to your funeral."

Mr Lee looked straight at Sebastian. "Because I was afraid to face them. All these years they blamed Alexander for killing you, but in fact it was my fault that you vanished."

No one said any word. Mr Lee sighed quietly, obviously regretting everything he had done in the last fifteen years. "I started with my research...only a year before I met Axel the first time after you disappeared, Sebastian. And in this year I found out a lot. Normal clones were not enough for me, I wanted beings which could be strong enough to survive difficult situations. So I came up with that show to get the DNA I needed for my cloning programms.

"And the winner had to have perfect skills, agility, strength and good reflexes to suit my plans. Honestly I only wanted Axel to win, he seemed to be perfect. But he wanted his friends to be winners as well, that's how I got the idea to create the Mu-Team. Not only Tilian, but lots of clones, using different DNA to see what I could create."

"So why did Tilian attack me in the first place when he wasn't meant to be evil?", asked Axel and folded his arms. "I know it wasn't your fault he escaped, but why did he hunt me down?"

"I don't know. Something with the DNA went wrong. All the reptiles I used, crocodiles, chameleons, cobras and geckos, had something in common with their DNA. I just found out in the first stadium of his increase. The reptile DNA caused a change of some hormons. And that lead to his strength, but also to the aggressivity. I thought I could take care of that problem later. To be honest, he wasn't meant to escape. It was an instinct, one I wasn't able to oppress. And this mistake appeared in all the other clones as well."

"Well, thankfully they're gone now...", sighed Lioness.

"I still regret that they're gone, but it's better this way, I think...I really realised what I did when I fell...And this fall pulled me back into reality. That it is nearly impossible to help the world by creating some higher beings."

"Right, I guess some scientists would have given you lots of money to take some tests on the clones", giggled Hawk.

"I'm afraid you're right."

Mr Lee sighed, his eyes looked tired, sad and full of sorrow. His glasses slided a bit down his nose, but he didn't matter. Closing his eyes he buried his face in his hands. "And just because of one single mistake my whole life went wrong, my life's work was destroyed and the life of others..."

Sebastian placed a hand on his shoulder, Mr Lee looked up. "Janus", he said. "Don't blame yourself for the past. The _now_ is counting." He smiled, trying to comfort his friend.

"I...I guess you're right..." Then suddenly he seemed to remember something. "But what's with Quang? Won't he show up again when he finds out that I'm still alive? Or that _you _are still alive?" He seemed to become nervous.

"He won't", said Axel, couldn't oppress a slight grin of triumph. "Quang is dead. We saw him dying just a few days after the Aquatic Center was destroyed."

"He...he's dead?" Now Mr Lee looked like he couldn't really believe it. "But...how?"

"Dragon killed him", said Hawk without thinking about his sentence. The others only rolled their eyes and looked away as Mr Lee stared at Sebastian's clone. Dragon just bowed to him.

"I fulfilled my assignment", he said simply.

"So...everything's over now, isn't it?", asked Lee.

"I think so", said Lioness. "The evil guy is gone, you are back and we all have our lives...yeah, everything's normal again."

"But Lee Industries has its boss back", smiled Garrett. "Sir, it's an honour to have you back."

"Thanks Garrett...so...you forgave me? After everything I did? You know you have perfect reasons to hate me." Lee lowed his voice sadly and sighed.

"Everything's forgiven", grinned King.

"Only under one condition", began Hawk.

"Yeah ML, that one condition is", continued Shark.

"We want our jobs back", finished Lioness.

"The ones you took away from us when you came up with the Mu-Team." Axel folded his arms.

Mr Lee looked at them for a while, then Sebastian patted him on the shoulder. "That's the least you can do." He smiled.

"That is no question. Of course you get your jobs back! And I'll double your pay, too. Alright? I hope now I can work out all the mistakes I did in the past...starting with this."

"Don't worry ML", smiled Axel. "A good start can only mean a good continuation."

**Thanks for reading, I really hope you liked it! ))) Review please!!**


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